OLSX to meet Financial Services Authority at St Ethelburga's

Representatives from Occupy London (OLSX) are set to meet with Hector Sants, chief executive of the UK regulator for the financial services industry, the Financial Services Authority.

The discussion will take place on Wednesday 7 December 2011. OLSX is part of the global movement against corporate greed and for social, political and economic justice.

Aimed at opening up dialogue between the Occupy movement and the FSA, the meeting has been arranged by St Paul’s Institute along with Occupy London’s Multifaith, Belief & None working group.

The meeting will be attended by the Anglican Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, and Ken Costa, former Vice-Chairman of UBS Investment Bank and chair of Lazard International, as well as ten occupiers. This will include participants from a number of OLSX working groups – on Economics, Corporation, Politics, International and City of London Policy.

The one hour meeting, the first of its kind, will take place in the Persian Tent at St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace in the heart of the City of London.

The focus will be to discuss what regulatory changes the FSA envisages taking place, the practical considerations regulators have to contend with and the time frames the FSA is proposing.

Occupy London representatives will be addressing issues and concerns raised by its General Assemblies, including how to work towards a future system that is democratic, just, open, accountable and transparent and discussing the need for regulators to be genuinely independent of the industries they regulate.

They will also be asking why they should believe regulation will work now, when it has previously failed, and they will be opening up discussion as to how they, and the wider public, can inform and influence the process.

The news follows the recent publication of Occupy London’s call for an end to tax havens, for lobbying transparency and personal accountability for executives.

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